CompTIA: Tech Unemployment Rate at Lowest Level in Two Years

The unemployment rate for information technology reached a two-year low in July as tech sector companies increased their staffing, according to an analysis by CompTIA, a nonprofit IT industry association based in suburban Chicago.

The unemployment rate for tech occupations dropped to 1.5% in July, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, whose data is central to the CompTIA analysis. The report states this is the lowest level since August 2019 and is close to the historic low of 1.3%.

“Beyond the headline figures, the underlying data tells a growth story of diverse hiring across tech occupation categories, industry sectors, employer types and locations,” said Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s EVP for research and market intelligence. “It’s not one overriding factor, but a combination of factors contributing to tech employment growth.”

Tech sector employers increased employment by 10,700 positions last month. Three employment categories accounted for the gains. Companies added 5,200 workers in IT services and custom software development, 4,000 in other information services, including search engines, and 1,800 in data processing, hosting and related services.

Tech occupations in all sectors of the U.S. economy increase by 178,000 positions in July, while employer job postings for IT positions surpassed 318,500, an increase of more than 7,000 from the previous month.

The Dallas metro market recorded the largest month over month gain in tech jobs postings (+2,960), followed by New York (+2,058), Los Angeles (+1,906), Chicago (+1,680) and San Francisco (+1,613).

Channel Impact^®
The distribution of jobs by urban area demonstrates the rate at which new locations are competing against established tech centers.